Punjab to re-examine Non-Resident Indian (NRI) proclaimed offenders’ list that includes many names from Canada

Chandigarh (IANS): The Punjab government will re-examine all cases of NRIs who had been declared proclaimed offenders (POs) in previous years for their involvement in various cases of terrorism and other crimes.

Punjab’s NRI Affairs Minister Tota Singh said Wednesday the state government was collecting complete data of proclaimed offender NRIs to re-examine their cases.
“The mechanism is being worked out to remove such persons from the list of POs who were not involved any heinous crimes or were booked for committing petty crimes. No one would be allowed to exploit NRIs to settle their personal family scores,” Tota Singh said.
The minister said investigation of cases involving NRIs will be done in a time-bound manner.
Issuing instructions to fast track the disposal of NRI complaints, the minister said the Punjab government has also requested the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to set-up more NRI courts in the state for which the state was ready to bear all expenses.
The minister asked NRIs to constitute five-member district committees which would be given recognition by the state government.
He said these committees would be attached with the NRI police stations that would help in resolving NRI disputes amicably.
Singh appealed to NRIs to provide help in saving youth, who want to migrate abroad, from the fraudulent marriage and illegal travel agents.

EARLIER this month, The VOICE reported that Punjab Police were looking for 663 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in marriage disputes and other criminal cases.

The Tribune newspaper of Chandigarh reported that of the 27 police districts in Punjab, the Doaba region accounts for more than half of the “proclaimed offenders.” The majority are wanted for fraud marriages and ditching their spouses.

The Jalandhar (rural) police district has the highest number of “proclaimed offenders” at 195 NRIs, followed by Moga (128), Jalandhar City (72), Amritsar City (34), Faridkot (32), Ludhiana-rural (28), Ludhiana City (22), Khanna (17), Ropar (14) and Hoshiarpur (12).

Punjab now has 15 NRI police stations which are hunting for 123 “proclaimed offenders” and the largest number are from Canada at 44, followed by the U.S. (27), the U.K. (16), Italy (13) and Australia (8).